Sony SRS-XB20 Portable Wireless Speaker with Extra Bass and Lighting - Black

Looking to upgrade from my Anker one speaker portable, I must of watched hours of Sound test comparisons on YouTube.. For me, it finally came down to this and the JBL Flip 4 (at this price point). It was a tough calll but, the Sony just swung it. Firstly, i have to say the lighting effect seems random and programmed rather than beat responsive so, i just turned it off (this has the benefit of saving on battery power). I bought the black so, the light is just white anyhoo, if you buy the green, the light will be green, buy blue...light is blue (you get the idea). The next thing that irked me was the bluetooth light on the top of the unit. Unless bluetooth is connected, the indicater just constantantly flahes (just niggles me when i use the wired 3.5mm set up).The unit itself is solidly built and has some reassuring weight to it. It's wrapped in good quality rubber, which makes it very tactile to hold. It has a metal front grill with the Sony logo on. While this is protective of the speakers inside, with time and use it may suffer dents or scratches. I have no problem with wear and tear. The rear has another little "grill" which acts like a kind of mini subwoofer, together with different sockets (under a small flap). You get a mini usb for charging, a 3.5mm audio in and a reset hole. On top, you will see all your controls: Power/Pairing button, small amber charging light and bluetooth connected light, volume +/-, an add button(to link to other units...seemingly you can add up to 100!), Play/Pause button, a call button for your phone which doubles as a battery level indicator (A lovely little feature...just hold for a few seconds and it will tell you approx. batt lvl) and finally, the Extra Bass button (which also turns off the lighting.....thankfully). But, it's the sound that's really important,right? So, during all the sound tests the Sony blew away all the competition imo, including the JBL Flip 4. Being a budget audiophile i prefer a tighter bass with clear mids and highs (rather than say, a more rolling/booming bass that muddies the mids and dominates the sound. In this regard, the Sony is absolutely spot on! While the sound of the JBL may have seemed more natural, at volume less than 50% it's mids are quite muddy. The Sony is more adaptable, with Bass that you can simply turn off if your mids become less pronounced. I tested the Sony for 4 hours with music of different genres (Jazz, Rock, R&B and Reggae). It's important to realise that any sound is only as good as the recording. The choice of placement will also be fundamental to the sound, if you place on a pine unit or kitchen worktop etc. the sound will be more towards the top end but, I found the best place to test the bass was on the rug/carpet, which gives it a rich bass that I could feel vibrating through the floor and sofa (at 90% volume). So, I got my reggae tunes out and started to push it! Dennis Brown, Black Uhuru etc. Then finally, Warrior Charge By Aswad. The Sony handled them all with great clarity and a Bass that would put a small hi-fi to shame! If you want LOUD, then forget the JBL's, the Sony Kills It! This also handled my FLAC files with ease and i would recommend that your MP3 files be at least 192k.Overall, i really cannot fault the sound qaulity. It should appeal to boomers and the more audiophile amongst you. It oozes quality and sophistication (i have to remember that this is ONLY a small portable speaker but, it's all relative, i guess. I'm so glad i chose the Sony over the JBL (until now, probably the most popular speaker at this price point). Well worth the 70 quid i paid. I heartily recommend this to anyone!

Owning one of these speakers is great; owning two is rather special….. let me explain. So I have some Bluetooth speakers…. The best stand alone (for quality of sound) is my Nad Viso 1 AP but it is tethered by a power cord.I bought a few Bluetooth speakers, including the best of the sub £50 (Taotronics), and have owned the Bose mini at £150, but the Sony here is (or are) my kitchen Bluetooth speaker(s). The quality of the SRS-XB20 is just Sony; great quality build and better than the 20 watts that people say it’s output is…. But there is a particular quality to this Sony speaker in build and extras; of course the Extra Bass (what was ‘bass boost’ that Sony was famous for in the 80’s)… does it make a difference? Actually, Yes it does, and distinguishes it from other similar priced competitors.But there is something better when you connect two SRS-XB20 speakers together, since not only do you get stereo separation but the sound-stage both in width and depth when two are paired make for a very credible (almost) HiFi experience…. in a flat or cottage; and it sounds rather good in those smaller spaces… remember I have the NAD so I perhaps just may know what ‘good’ may sound like.So, this SRS-XB20 is rather good as an individual Bluetooth speaker but rather excels when you have two….. really surprised me I have to say in sound quality, depth and range….. Oh, and the SRS-XB20 has some LED lights… switch them off!, the lights cheapen the speaker and are a distraction from what is a great little speaker; fabulous if you have a pair, I confess to being rather pleasantly surprised with both the single speaker and particularly a pair.

good battery life, great sound and bass, easy to connect to. impressed with how good the sound is considering the size of it. the only things I don't like about it is the flashing lights, is completely pointless and a waste of battery - you can turn it off no problem though. it is fairly heavy too, something to consider if you plan on carrying it around with you all day.a very impressive piece of kit if you want something to listen to music in different rooms though. I've always been a fan of Sony headphones so getting a Sony speaker seemed like a no brainer.

Good Sound, but some dents on the face of the speaker and almost torn charger.

This is certainly one of the better devices out there in terms of appearance and build, but for my needs - namely listening to podcasts, YouTube and videos in the kitchen - it's far too boomy. Somehow it manages to materialise a low muffled bass out of pretty much any audio! Since it doesn't have an EQ beyond turning the bass boost on and off it's unlistenable for my use case. I can imagine this would be perfect at cutting through the noise of a party, though, as it's surprisingly loud for something so small.I'm not sure if it was my unit, but I had some sync issues; on a 2015 MacBook Pro it dropped out a couple of times and on a 2009 MacBook Pro it dropped out once and returned with a furiously loud volume setting. iPhone seemed to be okay though but I didn't try it long enough before getting tired of the sound.

I'm using the speaker in a smaller room for personal use, listening to music mostly. For this purpose, this is an excellent speaker. The mids and highs are quite impressive and the bass is quite frankly speaking 'incredible' for the size. This is, however, only up to about half of the volume, after which the bass drastically decreases with rising volume, which is of course completely normal as it's as tiny and light speaker. With normal volume, however, the sound is extremely mature and it's just beautiful to listen to them.Considering the value for money, this is a great speaker. Anyone who's looking for something small and light, with excellent sound during 'normal' volume, the Sony SRS-XB20 comes highly recommended.